Many years ago the people of what was then the Soviet Union
behaved so slavishly and submissively that the following joke
became popular: "A group of people is called for a general
meeting. They are told that next day they will all be hanged, and
they are asked if they have any questions. One person stands up
and asks: 'What about the ropes? Do we have to bring our own, or
will the trade union provide them?'"

From the actions of Israeli Jews, it appears that they are
asking this question almost every day. The level of national
degradation is absolutely impossible to comprehend. It is even
more noticeable in comparison with the behavior of the Arabs, who
proudly use the word "MY" when talking about the land,
in contrast to the Jews who are so easily relinquishing this most
precious of man's commodities.

"The Jerusalem Report" wrote in its
May issue about Fuad Rian, an Arab who has been sleeping in his
wheat fields since April 5, protesting the building of the
Trans-Israel Highway. For Fuad - "Land is life." For
the Israeli leaders - land is just a bargaining chip. The
haggling associated with the squandering of the Jewish lands of
Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) is absolutely shameful. "The
Jerusalem Post" reported on April 25 that the
"PA sources said Clinton conveyed to Palestinian Authority
Chairman Yasser Arafat that Barak is ready to hand over 80% of
the West Bank and withdraw from Jerusalem suburbs"(1).
Another "Palestinian official" said that "in
back-channel talks, Israel has offered the Palestinians more than
90 percent of the West Bank, if they agree to delay the issue of
Jerusalem for a few years"(1). At the same time "other
sources said Barak expressed a willingness to concede 70% to 80%
of the West Bank to a Palestinian state"(1).

While the Jewish press is ashamed to use the real name of the
primordial Jewish land, calling it "the West Bank," the
Arabs speak absolutely differently about the land that fell under
their control (the Sinai was conquered from Turkey by Britain in
1917 without any Egyptian help and simply given to Egypt by the
British government). On the anniversary of the
"liberation" of Sinai Samir Ragab wrote in the Egyptian
Gazette, "Egyptians believe it unthinkable that we could
relinquish an inch of Arab land, because that land is the
nation's pride and dignity"(2).

What for the Arabs is a matter of the "nation's pride and
dignity" for the Jews is spare change that can be easily
given away. The Associated Press reported on April
24 that Ehud Barak was planning to convene his Security Cabinet
meeting on April 27 during which "the Cabinet will consider
an additional withdrawal from 2-3 percent of the West Bank as a
goodwill gesture to the Palestinians while the sides are
discussing larger withdrawals." It is obvious that the Arabs
should not be in a hurry to come to an agreement on a
"larger withdrawal" since a couple dozen "goodwill
gestures" will give them all they are looking for pretty
soon.

The Arabs have already learned that time is on their side and
the Jews themselves will give up everything. A good proof of this
is the issue of prisoners. Israel has exhausted all of its
"goodwill gestures" releasing Arab prisoners
"without blood on their hands" so, apparently, the time
came to let the others go, too. Israeli Minister of Internal
Security Shlomo Ben-Ami put it in this way, "There are no
remaining terrorists who have not killed Israelis, so, as the
process with the PLO Authority (PA) moves forward, there will be
no other alternative but to release security prisoners with blood
on their hands"(3).

Ben-Ami's logic is so simple that one can easy predict what is
going to be said by the Israeli leaders after they relinquish all
lands of Yesha. Some Minister will state then: "There are no
remaining territories outside the green line, so as the process
with the PA moves forward, there will be no other alternative but
to relinquish the land of Israel proper."

The virus of national degradation has infected all Israeli
institutions. On April 24 the General Security Service (GSS/Shin
Bet), the organization that should know all about the Arabs,
recommended that the "government release terrorists from
prison who have killed and/or injured Israelis in terrorist
attacks. The GSS has called for terrorists affiliated with Yassir
Arafat's Fatah faction be released from Israeli prisons"(3).
It is one thing when the Israeli man in the street suggests to
release Fatah members from prison but it is completely different
when this is recommended by Shin Bet.

It is hard to believe that Shin Bet is not familiar with the
text of Fatah's Constitution, recently placed on the Fatah Web
site. Hence, it is puzzling that Shin Bet calls for the release
of people whose movement's essential principles consider
"liberating Palestine as a national obligation"
(article 5), for whom "the Israeli existence in Palestine is
a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base" (article
8) ; whose goal is "complete liberation of Palestine, and
eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural
existence"(article 12) ; for whom "armed public
revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine"
(article 17) and that advocates "opposing any political
solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist
occupation in Palestine" (article 22) (4).

One must admit that the Arabs have done an excellent job in
convincing the Jews that they, the Jews, are the occupiers who
are responsible for all the sufferings of the Palestinian Arabs.
The Arabs have managed to instill in the Jews the complex of
guilt and now demand that the Jews acknowledge "their
responsibility in the expulsion of nearly one million
Palestinians from their homes in 1948" (5). The editorial on
the official PA Web site declared that the "Palestinians, so
far, have been denied the basic right to see their suffering
recognized by its perpetrators"(5). Reuters reported on
March 13 that Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent PA legislator, speaking
in Washington, demanded that Israel should "make a public
historical apology to the Palestinians for the grave historical
injustice they have suffered"(6). As Ashrawi said: "An
apology to the Palestinian people is long overdue -- a
recognition of the historical fact of 1948 and the ongoing
victimization of the Palestinians"(6).

Ashrawi is right, it is a "grave historical
injustice" that the Israeli leaders do not want to allow the
world and the Israeli Jews to learn the real facts. It is a pity
that the Israeli propaganda machine is completely rusted.
Otherwise, it would have emphasized that Khaled Al-Azm, who was
Syria's Prime Minister after the 1948 war, deplored the Arab
tactics and the subsequent exploitation of the refugees, in his
1972 memoirs, where he wrote:

"Since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of refugees
while it is we who made them to leave We brought disaster upon
Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure to bear
upon them to leave. We have rendered them dispossessed. We have
accustomed them to begging. We have participated in lowering
their moral and social level. Then we exploited them in executing
crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon men, women and
children - all this in service of political purposes"(7).

Khaled Al-Azm was not the only Arab leader who pointed his
finger on the real perpetrators of the sufferings of the
Palestinian Arabs. The late King Hussein of Jordan said in 1960
that "since 1948 Arab leaders have approached the Palestine
problem in an irresponsible manner They have used the Palestinian
people for selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous, I
could say, even criminal."

While the official Palestinian propaganda does its best to
obfuscate this issue, it is important to note that the
Palestinian Arabs know that their leaders are guilty of creating
the refugee problem. While it would be unrealistic to expect that
rank and file Arabs blame only themselves, it is revealing that
in a recent survey 30.4% Israeli Arabs and 36.1% Palestinian
Arabs said that "Israel and the Arab side are to the same
extent responsible for the creation of the refugee problem
in1948" (8).

Lacking knowledge of history, the Israelis think that perhaps
through submissiveness and appeasement they will pacify the
Arabs. If this is so, they simply demonstrate a complete
ignorance in understanding the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Israelis can relinquish land, they can free Fatah
"fighters," they can even admit their "guilt"
but none of these will change the Arabs' attitude towards Israel.
As Hizbullah secretary general Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in an
interview with "Time" Cairo bureau chief
Scott MacLeod, "Let us be clear. In our opinion, the Jewish
state is an illegitimate and illegal state and will remain so in
the eyes of the Arab and Muslim people, even if it is 50 years,
100 years, 200 years" (9)

The Arabs have learned the lingo that is acceptable to the
world community and constantly use it in order to reach their
goals. This is why, while leading a war against the Jews, they
call it peace. This is why they suddenly fell in love with
democracy, so cherished by enlightened mankind. As Nasrallah
said:

"We are not saying that we want to throw the Jews into
the sea. There are some Islamic scholars who gave a proposal: let
the Palestinian people return to Palestine and let us have a
referendum inside Palestine with the Muslims, Jews and
Christians. And then we will decide about the destiny of this
land. This is a democratic solution" (9).

While it is questionable that the state that Nasrallah has in
mind is going to be democratic, one thing is perfectly clear - it
is not going to be a Jewish state. What can be better proof than
the words of Chulud Badawi, the chairwoman of the Arab students'
organization of Haifa University, who was quoted in an article
published on April 28 in the local Haifa District newspaper
"Echo of the Suburbs" ("Hed Hakraiot"):

"We shall not stop our struggle until Israel, in
order to become a State of all its citizens, will cease to exist
as a Jewish State. And because symbols are important, then our
struggle is also about the annulment of "Hatikva" as
the national anthem, and the disappearance of the blue and white
flag with the Star of David in it as the State's flag."

If Israel continues at the same pace along the road of
national degradation Chulud Badawi will not have to wait long for
her dream to come true. [04/29/00]

NOTES:

1. The Jerusalem Post, 4/25/00

2. IMRA 4/24/00

3. Israel wire 4/25/00

4. http://www.fateh.org/e_public/constitution.htm

5. Official PNA Editorial: The Last Mile;
http://www.pna.net/last_mile.htm